Billionaire Czech Leader Escapes Charge That Threatened His Rule
Czech Prosecutors Drop Charges in Premier Babis’s Fraud Case
(Bloomberg) -- The Czech Republic’s billionaire leader can breath a sigh of relief after prosecutors cleared him of accusations that he fraudulently drew European Union funds in a case that has dogged his efforts to rule.
Facing the biggest anti-government protests since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Prime Minister Andrej Babis was looking at the prospect of years in court, potential jail sentences for him and his family and isolation from opposition parties and his counterparts abroad.
The prosecutor’s announcement Friday removes the biggest political albatross from the neck of his ruling ANO party, which has struggled to maintain its minority coalition despite widespread public support. Political pressure will remain, however as the biggest opposition groups have vowed to continue to shun cooperation even if the allegations were dropped.
“Let’s hope that it’s the end of it, I’m certainly very happy,” Babis told Radio Impuls. “I’m happy that the state attorney found the courage. People in the streets were shouting that Babis belongs in jail.”
Babis has repeatedly denied accusations that a company in his agriculture, media and chemicals empire, which he placed in trusts before taking office, had broken the law to tap a 50 million-koruna ($2.2 million) EU subsidy to finance the reconstruction of an agro-tourism complex. He has repeatedly called the case a political attack by his rivals.
While the case at the beginning “appeared as a simple fraudulent act,” the investigation showed that the company met the requirements to receive the subsidy at the time it requesting it in 2008, Prague’s top prosecutor, Martin Erazim, said in a statement.
The case will now go to the country’s chief prosecutor, who has three months to review and potentially overturn the decision. The government said it had no immediate comment.
Babis also faces an unrelated EU probe over potential conflict of interest. A preliminary report by the European Commission found Babis in conflict because he has maintained influence over his businesses while helping to decide on EU funds that they may receive. He denies any wrongdoing, and the government has disputed the preliminary finding.
The legal complications have been the biggest challenge for the second-richest Czech, who rose to power by attacking the political establishment, campaigning against Muslim refugees and boosting budget spending.
After he won the 2017 elections, he was shunned by what would be his natural center-right allies and was forced to form a minority coalition with the Social Democrats. The government has since ruled with tacit parliamentary backing from the Communist Party.
Despite the protests, Babis’s ANO party has a wide lead in opinion polls with support of around 30%, twice as high as the nearest opposition group.
To contact the reporters on this story: Krystof Chamonikolas in Prague at kchamonikola@bloomberg.net;Peter Laca in Prague at placa@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey
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